Jewish Piety in Islamic Jerusalem

The Lamentations Commentary of Salmon ben Yeruhim

Jessica Andruss (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

440 Seiten

2023
Oxford University Press Inc (Verlag)
978-0-19-763955-9 (ISBN)

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The emergence of the Jewish Bible commentary in the tenth century marks a turning point in Jewish intellectual history, namely, the transition from ancient rabbinic culture to the Arabized Judaism of the medieval period. This book explores a formative moment in this cultural reorientation by analyzing one of the earliest Jewish Bible commentaries. Written in Arabic in tenth-century Jerusalem, Salmon ben Yeruhim's commentary on Lamentations reveals a nuanced negotiation between the rabbinic tradition and the intellectual resources of the Islamic world.

Salmon was a prominent figure among the Karaites, a Jewish movement defined by its commitments to biblical scholarship and penitential practices. For him, Lamentations is "instruction for Israel"--spiritual guidance for the Jewish community in exile--and his task is to communicate that instruction. Jewish Piety in Islamic Jerusalem explores the medieval Arabic dimensions of Salmon's project, tracing his engagement with the nascent fields of Arabic literary theory, historiography, and homiletics. The central argument of the book is that Salmon articulates a Jewish pietistic message through emergent Arabic-Islamic genres, transforming them to reflect his own religious and exegetical commitments. In this way, Salmon applies Arabic learning to the Bible at the same time that his understanding of the biblical text expands the Arabic intellectual tradition. The book advances these claims through six analytical chapters and an annotated English translation of the homilies and excursuses of Salmon's commentary.

Jessica Andruss is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. Her research and teaching concern medieval Jewish and Muslim cultural and intellectual history, and the connections between Jewish and Muslim communities in the Mediterranean and Middle East.

Acknowledgments
Abbreviations

Part One: Studies
Preface
Notes on the Translation
Chapter One: Lamentations and the Mourners for Zion
Chapter Two: The Lamentations Commentary of Salmon ben Yeruhim
Chapter Three: Salmon's Engagement with Rabbinic Sources
Chapter Four: Salmon's Approach to Figurative Language
Chapter Five: The Art of the Homily
Chapter Six: The Hermeneutics of Historical Reflection
Conclusion

Part Two: Selected Translations from the Commentary
Invocation
Introduction
Lamentations 1
Lamentations 2
Lamentations 3
Lamentations 4
Lamentations 5

Glossary of Salmon's Arabic Terms
Bibliography

Erscheinungsdatum	15.09.2022
Verlagsort	New York
Sprache	englisch
Maße	237 x 163 mm
Gewicht	789 g
Themenwelt	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Religionsgeschichte
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Judentum
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Islam
ISBN-10	0-19-763955-0 / 0197639550
ISBN-13	978-0-19-763955-9 / 9780197639559
Zustand	Neuware